"Hybrid or not, if you want good fuel economy you have to drive like you want it."

Truer words were never spoken. These came from autoblog.com, in an item about U.S. consumer backlash against manufacturers of hybrid vehicles because of their "unattainable" EPA fuel consumption ratings.

This consumer kerfuffle has led to various responses from manufacturers, and from the EPA itself.

That's the message in "The next time you get gas: economy driving", a video I produced in 1993 while working part-time as an instructor for Young Drivers of Canada and studying in the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University.

It may be 12 years old, but the message is perhaps even more relevant today than it was when I made it.

Ever wonder how much of a difference specific car mods (or driving techniques) make to fuel efficiency?

So did the engineers at Honda.

For you economy numbers nerds (you know who you are), there's a particularly illuminating paragraph in an overview of the 2005 Accord Hybrid that attributes specific fuel saving values to each of the component technologies that make up Honda's hybrid approach.

Care to guess which gadget/refinement nets which increase in fuel economy?